Tag Archives: American Revolution

My English class and I are researching freedom and slavery in 1774 in our town of Suffield, Connecticut. We have been working hard to tell the “untold” history of 1774. For over two months all of the thirteen students in our class were going in different directions on behalf of the same question: What happened after the Boston Tea Party?

In order to understand our very specific question, we have to know a big picture, that is why I decided to go ahead and look for what led to the Boston tea Party.

I have been working with the New York Public Library for almost a month and with NYPL cooperation I was able to find a lot of information on the Boston Committee of Correspondence.

The Boston Committee of Correspondence was formed in 1772 on the verge on the American Revolution by Samuel Adams in response to the British government’s decision to pay the governors and making them and America fully dependent on the crown. Adams and other leaders wrote all the colonists’ rights and proposals and sent them to other Massachusetts’ towns in order to get approval, advice and support. Similar committees were formed in other colonies in America, including New York, making this a strong network that helped communication across the thirteen colonies in order to gain independence from Great Britain.

Forming the Boston Committee of Correspondence was the first step against the British Crown.

The committees were responsible for the atmosphere in the Colonial America on a particular issue or law. Most of the correspondents were members were active in Sons of Liberty organizations. The committees lasted for twelve years, 1772-1784.

As our 2017 Project Base Learning class has continued to look into 1774 regarding slavery and freedom in Suffield, Connecticut, we have been expanding to our search to the surrounding colonies and the Triangle Trade. The Triangle Trade was very crucial to the colonies economy. Slaves from Africa were sent to the West Indies to work on sugar plantations. This sugar was then transported up to the Colonies to be sold, and in return the Colonies traded food and supplies to the West Indies. The islands in the West Indies were populated with sugar plantations, and with this monopoly and wealth, they had enough money to pay whatever necessary funds for food and supplies. This allowed for the Colonies to charge high prices and enabled anyone to get in on the trade. I was curious of my hometown of Bermuda and where it fit into all of this during this era so, I started investigating our role in the trade.

I discovered Bermuda was not only apart of the triangle trade but also sympathized with the colonists idea of freedom. In the book “In the Eye of all Trade”, by Michael Jarvis, the details of Bermuda’s role in the trade is presented. Bermuda’s economy was dependent on trade by sea, and merchant ships from the Colonies and the West Indies. Being such a small island, Bermuda was not able to join the Colonies in their rebellion against the British, so instead they assisted the Colonies by selling them over a thousand Bermuda Sloops, which are very fast sailboats. However, along with the West Indies, when the revolution began, Bermuda worried of starvation as they relied heavily on imports of food from the Colonies. Likewise, the Colonies depended on Bermuda for salt, so Bermuda began exchanging salt for food. To further assist the Colonies, two Bermudians, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Tucker, robbed a hundred barrels of gunpowder to send to the Colonies. As the Revolutionary War continued,

Scan of letter from George Washington to Bermuda

Bermuda was still unable to join due to the power of the British Royal Navy. Nevertheless, George Washington wrote a letter to Bermuda addressing the topic of trade and Bermudas role in assisting the colonies. In his letter, Washington stated that if Bermuda continued to assist the Colonies in their fight for freedom, he would ensure that “your island may not only be supplied with provisions, but experience every mark of affection and friendship, which the grateful citizens of a free country can bestow on its bretheren and benefactors”.

The connection between Bermuda and the Colonies is clear and their support during the Revolutionary War was very beneficial in the fight for freedom. The small island of Bermuda played its own role in the rebellion and was a large part of the triangle trade.